Aphid Attack on Masdies- Safer Soap?

[Connie Star]

I am over-run with aphids in my indoor/living room growing space. They are especially numerous on my several flowering masdies, esp Masd floribunda. How often can I use Safer Insecticidal Soap? I'll spray like crazy one day (I spray outside for safety) and 2 days later there are more.
Should I spray as soon as I see more, or wait a set number of days? I rinse the soap off after it has dried so build up of residue should not be an issue.
Help!

[Gin]

Here is some info.Aphids, Hemiptera, life-cycle and behaviour, reproduction, feeding, damage to plants. Biology article by D G Mackean I have not read all of the link looks like 8 to 10 days life cycle . I had them
on a plant I bought used Safers about every other day washing as you are doing before spraying , got to get the eggs . I used alcohol but the plant was not a Masdevallia ..

[RJSquirrel]

I was just reading what the greenhouse uses where I get most my masdys from and they use Orthene for active infestation and Merit for prevention. Orthene and Merit are injected into the soil or watered in.
You are getting them back bec they live in the soil and you are just knocking down the ones that come to take a bite to eat. Now the trouble with these chemicals are that they smell bad and shouldn't be used inside the home for reasons that include being toxic. You have to treat the media with something to stop them. You could re-pot everything. You can treat them with drastic measures, chemical bomb them into oblivion (my personal choice) ,or you can keep spraying the ones you find each day and go on and on and on until you get tired and eventually bomb them little boogers right out of existence..

Aphids secrete honeydew which causes mold in between the leaves creases and small places you cant see. The mold alone can eventually cripple or kill the plant by choking it. Im afraid the soap you are using is just for fun..

[silken]

I used Merit on several of my plants to treat aphids and haven't seen one since-more than a year later. The stuff I have (granular form to mix with water) doesn't smell at all. I would use caution on your precious masdies, but it sure does the trick. I have an orchid cactus and a jacaranda tree that I grew from seed in my greenhouse. The blooms on the cactus and the jacaranda leaves were aphid magnets until I used the Merit. Guess it is likely time for another preventative dose when I think about it!

Hope you can get them under control or better still, completely gone.

[Gin]

Bayer Tree and Shrub will work but not sure of the effect on a Masd.

[Leafmite]

A systemic, as suggested, is the only way to be rid of an aphid infestation when there are no hoards of lady bugs present. I've never had to use it on orchids, let alone delicate ones, but you could try it on one you can easily replace. You could also probably call one of the big orchid places and just ask them what to do and they'd probably help you out. Aphids are nasty little buggers and difficult to get rid of without a systemic.
Good luck,
Leafmite

[silken]

I've used the Merit (systemic) on some orchids with no ill effects, just not masdies. Many members in our society use it against scale and mealy bugs on their orchids.

[Connie Star]

Thanks, everybody. At this point, the aphids are few in number. I would use them outside, but the long environmental half life of the Merit worries me. It is derived from nicotine. Hmm. Maybe I should take up smoking??